Doing business in India is now easier than ever: WB

India, according to the latest World Bank Doing Business Report (DBR 2019), has emerged as one of the top improves for the year. According to the report, India jumped 23 positions to rank 77 from its 2017 ranking of 100, helped by improvements in 6 out of 10 indicators. The honour, for the second straight year, by World Bank takes into account the ease of starting and doing business in a country.

A Ministry of Commerce and Industry statement said: “India’s leap of 23 ranks in the Ease of Doing Business ranking is significant considering that last year India had improved its rank by 30 places, a rare feat for any large country of the size of India.” The statement added: “India has improved its rank by 53 positions in the last two years and 65 positions in the last four years.”

Factors that helped India

In making the assessment, the World Bank reviews 190 countries around the globe based on 10 parameters including ease of dealing with construction permits, trading across borders, starting a business, getting credit, getting electricity, paying taxes, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Among these, the most dramatic improvement for India in the 2019 report has been registered in the indicators related to ‘Construction Permits’ and ‘Trading Across Borders’.

In granting construction permits, India improved by a whopping 129 ranks in a single year from 181 in 2017 to 52 in 2018. In ‘Trading across Borders’, India’s rank improved by 66 positions from 146 in 2017 to 80 in 2018. India, according to the World Bank, has also moved closer to international best practices (Distance to Frontier score) on 7 out of the 10 indicators.

When it comes to starting a business, India has made it easier by adopting a single window clearance system by merging multiple application into a single one. The DBR ranks countries on the basis of Distance to Frontier (DTF), a score that shows the gap of an economy to the global best practice and this year, India’s DTF score improved to 67.23 from 60.76 in the previous year.